The '30 Rock' star says she cried when her musical "Mean Girls" was nominated for 12 Tony Awards.

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May 3, 2018 / 4:46 PM GMT / Source: TODAY

By Scott Stump

Tina Fey was crying in the middle of an Equinox gym in New York City on Tuesday for all the right reasons.

The former "30 Rock" star was working out when she was told by a friend that her musical, "Mean Girls" had garnered 12 Tony nominations, which was overwhelming even for a woman with nine Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes on her resume.

"I was afraid to watch on TV, so my friend was scrolling through the internet, and as all this good news started to rain down on us, I started crying,'' Fey told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on TODAY Thursday.

"I cried in the middle of Equinox. I was not the first, and I'm sure I will not be the last."

After spending five years to translate her hit 2004 movie, "Mean Girls," to the Broadway stage, getting nominations in categories like best musical and best book of a musical was something special for the "Saturday Night Live" alum.

"I've never cried over an Emmy or a Golden Globe,'' she said. "It must've meant more to me than I realized because I'm just so proud of this show and everybody involved."

While the film still holds up 14 years later, it does contain some dated slang, most famously used by Gretchen Wieners, played by Lacy Chabert. She tries to make the word "fetch" into one everyone commonly uses before Regina George (Rachel McAdams) shuts it down.

"Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen!'' she says. "It's not gonna happen!"